Today was a full day of Sea Quest adventures. This morning we did a snorkeling outing to three different snorkeling spots. The Sea Quest crew, captain MJ and crewwoman Taylor, were great at helping all of us get situated with our snorkel gear. I had a tough time with my mask leaking and hurting from being so tight. It seemed that it would leak no matter what. I switched to one of Sea Quest’s mask for the second outing, and it was so much better, leak and pain free. I could actually enjoy the snorkeling without the pain making me want to stop.
There were so many fish at these reefs. I tried to remember what they looked like so I could look them up later, but there were so many different fish I couldn’t keep them straight. At the third spot we saw an eel, too.
The outing included lunch and several coastline stops at sea caves and lava tubes. Afterwards, we came home and recovered for a bit. A few family members got sea sick during the snorkel, so there was some needed recovery time. We had a quick frozen pizza and leftovers dinner before heading back for the night time manta ray excursion.
For the manta rays, they have these foam boards (about the size of a first aid spine board stretcher) with pipes around the perimeter for handles. Set in the foam are lights. The boards float and everyone holds onto the handles and uses pool noodles at their ankles to keep their feet up so our bodies are all floating flat at the surface. The light shines in the water and attracts plankton. The plankton attract the manta rays who eat it.
MJ was our boat captain again, and we had three other crew members. I can’t quite remember their names. Ryan? Wyland? A crew member was on each end of the boards in the water, maneuvering us around and providing commentary.
The manta rays were amazing. We saw so many of them. At first we saw one or two just swimming below us, but after we joined up with some other groups out there, we saw a lot more, and several of them swimming upside down less than an inch from the board hoovering the plankton. The manta rays would do “barrel rolls” where they would swim below us, swim up, swim upside down eating the plankton, and then swim down and right side up again. You’re not allowed to touch them, but it’s okay if they touch you. One graze my thumb, but Erica had several touch her. Watching them was incredible.
